Luck of the Irish

Alright, yes, I have been awful in my updating habits, but I promise I'll eventually upload the last two weeks in sections and episodes. For now - I'll start with this last weekend in IRELAND!

 ME IN IRELAND!!

Just so's you know, I can't use my camera since I lost my battery, and I'm still waiting on that to be returned to me (I hope!). I'll get pictures from everyone who went with me. Promise. For now, I'll just use Facebook pictures posted by my friends.

So, it was a little stressful setting up the trip. First, I got my ticket for super cheap (38 euros), but then my teacher said that I couldn't miss class, which was on Thursday and I was scheduled to leave on Wed. I had to change it, and it cost 55 euros to do that. Stupid, but oh well. I still got there!

Then on Thursday, I met Taylor and Alli at the airport (Alexi, Roxanne, and Jessica were already in Ireland). They happened to miss the last shuttle to the airport, so I sat in the terminal waiting and worrying for about an hour before I saw them come in. I'm telling you, I was so relieved that I almost fell on my knees crying. :) Then we got on the plane and went to Ireland!

When we landed, we heard a little boy behind us talking, and Taylor turned around and asked him, "Where are we?" He replied, "We're home!" It was adorable. Then Taylor said, "Well, this is my first time to your home." To which he said, "Welcome to my home!"

We got on a shuttle to Dublin and proceeded to get lost. We took directions from 5 different people, and all of them managed to guide us in the wrong direction. We wandered around the city for about 3 hours before we finally got to our hostel at 2:30 in the morning. It was so fun, funny, and incredible. As inconvenient as it was, I was having the time of my life. I laughed and danced in the streets. I was freezing my butt off and I didn't care a bit - I was just too happy to be in Ireland!

Next day, we woke up at 8:30 and had breakfast at the hostel, then we took a tour of the countryside. It was 25 euros, but totally worth it. We saw scenes from P.S. I Love You, and another scene from Braveheart.

Here's some pictures of Glendalough monastery, which existed since the reign of the Vikings:

 

And then we got to see some awesome views of the countryside:

Braveheart location

P.S. I Love You bridge

Amazing, n'est-ce pas?? I bought an Irish ring (it's a beautiful ring - I really like it), a CD with traditional Irish music, lots of socks with 4-leaf clovers, a sweater, and something super cute for my dear, new niece!

When we got back to Dublin, we rested at the hostel for about an hour before we went out for dinner (I had Irish stew - THE MOST amazing food in the world!) and then we went pubbing. Is that even a word? Anyways, it was our first time experiencing night life like that, but we figured since it's so much a part of Irish culture, we should go ahead and do it. So we met up with Alexi's best friend who happens to go to Trinity College (only the 12th greatest college in the world -- I believe), and she took us out to all the good pubs. The first one was a traditional looking pub, you know, how you would imagine an Irish pub to look like. There was traditional music playing with an actual band and all, and Roxanne bought a coke at the bar :)

The next pub looked more like a bar, more contemporary I guess (I don't know, I've never really been inside one). We danced there and had virgin strawberry daiquiris. They were SO good! There were a couple tricky spots when a drunk guy came up to us and started dancing into our circle, but no worse than the dance clubs in Utah. Again, I've never been there, but apparently (or so says my buddies) Utah dance clubs have dirtier dancing than what we've been through. I, frankly, was surprised. I was expecting a few more compromising situations, but there were absolutely no problems whatsoever. Just a few drunk guys trying to dance with us.

Left to right: Roxanne, Alli, Alexi, Jessica, me with our virgin daiquiris

Our last stop was at a dance club that we got in for free. It was loud (couldn't hear anything!) - so loud, it fact, that when we finally left, it took a half hour for our hearing to return to normal. But we had so much fun. We finished at 1:30 before people got roaring drunk and something would happen to us. It was a great night, though. I wish that we could have some kind of variation of this in Utah, without the alcohol, because this really is a great way to socialize and enjoy the night.

The next day, we went on a free tour of Dublin. It was freaking awesome - Dublin has it's own kind of beauty. Definitely not as elegant as Paris, but I think I liked it better than Paris. Paris is filthy, for one, and Dublin was surprisingly clean. I had expected it to be a lot dirtier, for some reason. Then, for another, the buildings are a lot more down to earth while retaining that old "feel" to it. And the people, gosh-dangit, are so nice! It's a lot like in Texas in that regard (except for the accent) - you can hold a conversation with a random stranger in the street and it would be considered normal. Also got to know the history of the city and/or Ireland in general.

In all (I know I've said this about a lot of places, but...) I do really believe that Ireland was my favorite place to visit so far. It reminded me so much of home, and I guess it was really good for me since I was getting a little homesick. It's on the top of my list to visit again if I get the chance.